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COP 29 in Azerbaijan/ climate summit in the country of oil

2024-11-12 09:04:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

COP 29 in Azerbaijan/ climate summit in the country of oil

A lot of money is at stake at the COP 29 UN climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. The head of state is encouraging investments in oil and gas.

In August 2014, investigative journalist and human rights activist Emin Huseynov feared for his freedom and life. "Then the repression started and most of my colleagues were arrested," says the 44-year-old, who is now a prominent critic of Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan's autocratic leader, co-founder of his country's Institute for Freedom and Safety of Journalists. He now lives in Switzerland for security reasons.

In 2014, Huseynov sought protection at the Swiss embassy in Baku. Today he lives in exile. Huseynov cannot return to his homeland. Dozens of other government critics and environmental activists are currently in prison in Azerbaijan, according to the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch.

This is where the international community has gathered for the climate conference, COP29, from November 11 to talk about the climate crisis and human rights and to negotiate fair funding for global climate protection.

As host and negotiator, Azerbaijan wants to work towards the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement: compliance with the 1.5 degree target, more climate protection, transparency, financial support for developing countries and climate justice.

Oil and gas - "A gift from God"?

Traditionally the host country plays a mediating role between the 196 countries participating in the climate conference. But Azerbaijan's head of state, Aliyev, has already made clear where his priorities may lie at the climate conference negotiating table.

"The fact that we have oil and gas reserves is not our fault. It is a gift from God," Aliyev said at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin in April, in front of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He will defend the right of countries to invest and promote fossil fuels, advance his country's prosperity and fight poverty, Aliyev continued. The COP host's electricity is made up of 93 percent fossil fuels. In the analysis by Climate Action Tracker, an alliance of various non-governmental organizations, Azerbaijan is given the worst rating for climate protection - on a par with oil-producing countries Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran. "There is huge investment in fossil fuels and climate protection measures are minimal," says Niklas Höhne of the non-governmental organization New Climate Institute in Cologne. The country does not yet have a zero emissions target.

Problems with climate protection

"Aliyev does not care about the climate," says Huseynov. He is mainly concerned about legitimizing his presidency. Aliyev took over the post of Azerbaijan's head of state from his father in 2003. This year he was confirmed as president in early elections. which OECD observers criticized as irregular and undemocratic. "People are still poor, even though we earn billions from exporting oil and gas," he said Huseynov.

According to the Climate Action Tracker, the potential for solar and wind power and the production of green hydrogen for export is huge. However, despite some investment, it is very little used. In an analysis, the organization assumes that the country's emissions will increase by 20 percent in the coming years.

Host countries are selected according to a regional rotation system of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The five regional groups - Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Eastern Europe and Western Europe and other countries - choose the host country. "Climate negotiations will only succeed if you have a strong and very credible presidency," Höhne said. However, Azerbaijan has so far performed better than it actually does when it comes to climate protection, he said. Höhne. Gas and oil

The president of this year's climate conference - and therefore the head of the negotiations - will be Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan's environment minister and former officer at state oil company SOCAR.

The fact that powerful figures in the oil and gas industry are chairing climate conferences is not new. The 2023 conference in Dubai was chaired by Sultan Ahmad al-Jaber, a senior executive at the UAE's state oil and gas company ADNOC. French energy group TotalEnergies and ADNOC recently invested heavily in expanding gas production in Azerbaijan through stake purchases. Oil and gas account for 90 percent of Azerbaijan's exports. The main buyer is the EU.

Business relations with Europe have intensified since Russia's aggression against Ukraine. This did not change even after the occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region by the Azerbaijani army and the expulsion of over 100,000 Armenians last year, which the EU also criticized. Azerbaijan remains an important supplier of gas to Europe, although it is not one of the world's largest oil and gas producers like Saudi Arabia, China, the US or Russia.

The danger of journalists and activists

The situation for local critics and environmentalists in this country is extremely bad. Protests are violently suppressed and, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), activists are arrested under fictitious pretexts. In April, human rights activist and climate activist Anar Mammadli was arrested by police outside a garden and has been held in prison ever since. According to HRW, before his arrest he co-founded a climate justice initiative that advocated for civil rights and the climate in Azerbaijan. The reason for the arrest, according to the authorities, is the smuggling of counterfeit money.

According to the non-governmental organization, violence against critics continued to increase ahead of the climate conference. So is the brutality of the approach, says Huseynov. Some of the colleagues are not only tortured in custody, but also killed in prison." In 2018, the Council of Europe (COE) stated that police violence in Azerbaijan was systematic and widespread. Azerbaijan is also a member of the COE.

President Aliyev does not want independent voices to speak for the international media, Huseynov continued. "The government is trying to use the climate negotiations, which are so important for the planet, to polish the bad image of the ruler," says the human rights activist. This must be prevented.

In addition to activists, independent news portals are also targeted by state repression. According to HRW, the newsrooms of two television stations were recently searched, employees were arrested and the websites of independent media were blocked. In the Reporters Without Borders ranking, Azerbaijan ranks 164th out of 180 countries, behind Somalia and Russia.

Due to criticism of human rights violations, Azerbaijan also imposed entry bans on four members of the Bundestag. Huseynov calls on the heads of state to put pressure on Aliyev and condition their visit on the release of political prisoners. He was released only because of political pressure from abroad. Before the 2015 European Games, the Swiss government demanded Huseynov's freedom. After many months in the Swiss embassy, ??he was then able to leave the country. Many other critics of the government remain in custody in Baku./ DW





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